Christ the Life of the Soul
1 John 5:12
He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.


He, who has a right to speak, has said that there is a certain thing, the possession of which constitutes "life," and so constitutes it that he who has it "has life," and he who has it not "has not life." There is a "life," dependent upon the possession of a certain thing, so much worthier than anything else of the name of "life," that, compared to it, nothing besides is real "life." Could you at this moment do it by a word, would you immortalise the "life" you are now living? The real Christian would. To him the change which he wishes is not one of kind, but of degree. He has that which he only wants purified and increased a thousand fold. The "life" he lives is what he wishes to be the germ of a "life" which he shall live forever and ever. Now this possession of Christ appears to me to be made up of three things. Properly speaking, the life which Christ lived upon this earth before His Cross was not the "life" which He came to communicate to His people. All that "life" He lived simply that He might purchase the "life" which He was going to give. The "resurrection life" is the "life" which Christ imparts to man. It is a "life" springing out of death. It is a "life" out of which the element of death has been altogether extracted. It is a "life" as essential as the Godhead of the Christ — as the "life" in which that Godhead resides is essential "life." "Life" is not what we live, but how we live it. To live indeed you must live livingly. To this end, then, if a man would "live" indeed, a man's soul must be always, in some way, receiving Christ.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

WEB: He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn't have God's Son doesn't have the life.




Christ in Man
Top of Page
Top of Page